NCT or NHS Antenatal Classes?

[prettyinpink90]

I've just received my final reminder today for my place on an NCT antenatal course for early next year but struggling to part with the £165 + £40 membership fees when there are free NHS classes available. Has anyone tried both? Which did you prefer? I keep thinking if I'm paying so much money, the NCT classes must offer me much more than the NHS ones?

Hi, do you know what the NHS offer for your area / postcode? The reason I ask is that I think it varies massively. We booked & paid for private classes (6 x 2 hours) assuming the NHS one would just be a crap one-off session. However, when the NHS invite came through it was for 5 x 2 hour sessions run by NCT! The agenda looked so good we cancelled the private ones & got our money back.

I know other people in my area didn't get such a good NHS deal & MW said it's purely down to catchment areas. Might be worth checking what you'll get on NHS first. I used the money we saved to justify regular reflexology sessions :)

We did both we had. 3x2Hrs NHS classes plus a 2-3hr breastfeeding class. Thought the NHS breastfeeding class was better than the NCT one and the classes covered complications better.
However my LO is 5 weeks and have met up with the NCT mums a few times and is just nice to know people with similar ages babies. That is what was worth the money in my opinion as didn't meet anyone through the NHS course.

Also just wanted to add that there are usually plenty of groups you could attend to meet new mums if you're only doing nct to make friends.

I got a lot out of my NCT classes, but didn't attend NHS ones so cannot offer a comparison.

You don't have to pay the £40 joining fee though - there's a box you can tick to opt out.

We couldn't get a space on the NHS one so did NCT. The content was.very good. None of the group were especially interested in meeting up regularly and I only see one girl from my NCT. In terms of meeting people it was a waste of time.

Later we did get onto an NHS one. It was in the daytime (only one with space) and run by the NCT. The content was pretty much identical. Most of the people were of a very different demographic though. We were by far the oldest, the only ones who were married and the only ones who were employed. We didn't meet anyone through that either.

Once I had my baby I wet to a lot of groups to try and meet people and have ended up with a great group of friends. Most of them met each other on the NHS antenatal, they all did the course in the evening (to fit round work).

My advice would be to find out who does the courses in your area for the NHS. I would also say that, in our experience, people doing NCT tend to be quite well off and I've heard from others they found it quite competitive and materialistic (our group never met up but another friend got a bit tearful as her group were quite bitchy and wouldn't go to her house as it was too small to accommodate them comfortably even though it is a normal 3 bed semi).

I did both. NCT classes were great, both for content and that our group of seven couples really gelled (classes facilitate this, often all day and including a meal together) and are still friends 7 years later. 2 Saturdays for about 4 hours including lunch and an evening BF class.
NHS classes were v short (3 x 1 hr) at inconvenient times for DH, far too overcrowded, no opportunity to ask questions. Didn't meet anyone there.
It sounds like as in all things with the NHS, what is on offer is a postcode lottery.

We did NCT and found it so good we didn't bother with the NHS ones. Also you can negotiate with NCT regarding price depending on your finances. Due to our low income we only had to pay £23 for a £230 course!

We are about to finish our nct antenatal course and have really enjoyed it. We start nhs ones next week so cant compare yet.
We only get 4 nhs ones but with our nct we get 6 plus a breastfeeding class plus 3 postnatal ones so we can meet up after babies have arrived. We didnt pay the membership either but both me and dh have been glad we went. Hope the nhs ones are as good.